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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I've done Day 1's challenge entry already but haven't put the panel "together" yet so that will be posted tomorrow. But here's Day 2's challenge entry! This is also an entry for Lily Pad Cards "Patterned Paper" challenge.

This card unfortunately has some background. A niece of my domestic helper was killed by a taxi (in South Africa the mass transport in the form of mini-bus taxis are extremely dangerous). This is for the little girl's Mom. She was only 6.

I used a lot less layering but the general layout is the same.
I first stamped the wheelbarrow and then created a mask. I use Post-it Notes and stamp over the sticky edge so that I can easily stick and peel off my stamped panel:

The wheelbarrow was paper pieced and the little farm girl colored with coloring pencils.
The number was stamped to correspond with the kid's age for the birthday. Luckily all 3 kids having birthdays in February are girls so I made the same card just with different ages stamped.

Jennie has quite a couple of cards using one of my favorite sets: Tree Silhouettes (GinaK Designs). I just had to use it again.
On white card stock I first stamped the tree with Tim Holtz Antique Linen. I then stamped over it with Pine Needles BUT I would stamp off once on scratch paper before stamping over the background trees.
The sentiment was stamped on some leftover card stock. The right edge was rounded and the edge all around distressed with Antique Linen. I also rubbed some Antique Linen over the trees and edges to darken the white.
The tree panel was glued and then stitched to the background DP.
I used Twinery Twine on the sentiment section and popped it on with foam tape.

I'd like to enter this card into the Stamp And Create challenge:
http://stampandcreateblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-monthly-challenge-anything-goes.html
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.com/2012/01/make-it-monday-73-with-cupcake-cards.html
http://birthdaysundaes.blogspot.com/2012/01/challenge-40-sponsored-by-meljens.html
http://letsinkitup.blogspot.com/2012/01/challenge-19.html
http://quirkycrafts.blogspot.com/2012/01/challenge-2-2012-silhouette.htmlhttp://celebratetheoccasion.blogspot.com/2012/01/challenge-47.html

What I usually do when the challenge is CASE'ing a DT is I start looking at the gallery from the 'back'. So I go to the oldest postings and work my way back :D I love to see how even the DT's have improved over the years - very motivational.

I used stitching for the first time and love the effect (although it's not too clear here - I used whatever spool I had on the machine). I might haul it out more often from its hiding place.

To stamp the flowers I inked up the flower part with the Memento Dandelion dewdrop ink pad. I then colored directly onto the stamp the green stalks with Memento Marker. I would stamp once in the bright color and then 'stamp off' a second time on the white card stock to create the lighter effect.

Monday, January 23, 2012

(Sorry for the picture quality. Was in a bit of a rush to send it in to a Stamptv challenge and my usual photo-place, the kitchen, was still sticky from having a liter of orange juice poured over the floor thanks to my 2 year old)

I decided to do a CAS card with hand-cut heart balloons. I tinted their edges slightly with Aged Mahogany. I also didn't want to go with the traditional pink/red colours but used my paper scraps stash that included some neutrals and greens :D
This is also the first card I made using twine from The Twinery!
Sentiment: GinaK Designs "Bold and Beautiful"

I do have some ribbon on spools but since I usually buy by the meter I had these odd strips of ribbon bundled up. So this is what I did:

Wrap the ribbon around 2 or 3 fingers into a roll. Stuff the roll into a small plastic zip bag, leaving one end sticking out. Close the zip on the sides of the ribbon. Now when you need some, just gently pull out the length needed and cut.

I had this odd plastic container lying around so I stacked the plastic bags in it. Where I only had a short strip of ribbon I grouped like colours together, stuffed the strip in and left one edge sticking out

The butterfly's shadow was first stamped using Antique Linen. This was cut out using Spellbinders Circles. The butterfly was re-stamped over DP scraps and cut out. The outline was then lined using Stardust Stickles.

The sentiment was stamped using the dotted oval frame and sentiment from GinaK Designs Fanciful Tags. It was cut out using Fancy Tags from Spellbinders.

I stamped the flower's shadow first with Antique Linen (thanks to little hands at home I had to say goodbye to my London Fog until it can be replaced). I then stamped over it (using my Stamp-a-ma-Jig) using a colour from my Colorbox set. In the photo below you can see the shadow a bit better.

The sentiment was stamped over the image with Memento Tuxedo Black. It was then cut out and the edge embossed with Spellbinders Classic Ovals.

TIP: If you're not sure whether your sentiment & image will fit inside the die, place the die over the image and lightly trace inside the die shape with a pencil. You can then see where to stamp your sentiment. Afterwards just erase the pencil mark.

TIP: I do not have a heat gun (those budget restrictions .....) but I found a very cool tip once on another website to use a kerosene lamp. This is what it looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp
All you do is hold your powder embossed area over the funnel and keep checking until it's melted. Then move it along.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

The top DP is from paper I've had a very long time and not sure of the make.
The bottom "DP" is actually stamped using the Music Sheet stamp from KaiserCraft (see "Stamps I use" for link). I stamped it on white paper but then aged it with Antique Linen (Tim Holtz)
The flower stamp is from Faithful Florals (GinaK Designs).

Here's the first card for 2012. I haven't been making cards for weeks and I felt like I lost a little mojo. I did fix that though (see following post):

The background was stamped using the cupcake from Calendar Bits & Pieces (GinaK Designs) and the piggy is from Funny Farm (GKD). I stamped a cupcake seperately, coloured it, cut it out and shaped the bottom to fit along the edge of the pig's mouth. Bon Appetit!